Billing process for printing systems

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a paperless billing process for enabling expedited and simplified payments of print volume bills by customers of printing systems. A method of performing a billing process for the copies or prints produced by customer of a printing system is provided where the printing system comprises a memory that stores product usage data indicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system. The printing system first accesses the memory to retrieve the product usage data. Then, the printing system calculates billing data using the retrieved product usage data. A bill is presented to the customer based on billing data, and the printing system receives user input from the customer indicating whether the customer authorizes the billing data. If so, a message is sent from the printing system to a billing service, wherein the message includes information indicating the authorized billing data. Thus, the bills are generated locally by the printing system using the printer user interface.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The invention generally relates to printing systems, and inparticular to the process of billing for the copies or prints producedby a customer of a printing system.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] Current printing systems such as electronic reprographic systems,copying machines or electronic printing machines are typically capableof counting pages. For customer records or for billing purposes, thesesystems comprise accounting mechanisms for computing the number of pagesthat are printed. Besides the copy count, these systems may furtheracquire other information for billing purposes such as measurements ofthe actual use of a wide range of system functions, including binding,scanning, stapling, stitching, shrink wrapping, etc. Further, the paperand toner consumption can be monitored. This information can then beused when generating the bill.

[0005]FIG. 1 illustrates the basic components of a conventional printingsystem. The printing system is controlled by controller 100 thatreceives image data from scanner 110 and outputs printing data to theprinter 150. The printer 150 comprises a paper supply and a finisher forperforming the above mentioned system functions.

[0006] The controller 100 includes an image input control 120 and imageoutput control 140 for controlling the image data transfer from and tothe system control 130. Further, there is a user interface 160 providedthat may be a liquid crystal display or another kind of mini display infront of the printing system. The controller 100 further includes amemory 170 for storing product usage data indicating measurements of theactual use of the printing system, such as copy counts. Further, thecontroller 100 may include a network interface 180 for connecting theprinting system to a local or global network or to a phone line.

[0007] A conventional billing process of such a printing systemaccording to the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 2. The process startswith step 210 in which the customer reads the copy count. The customerthen sends a hard copy document to the billing service in step 220 forgetting the copy count over to the billing service, and the billingservice generates a bill (step 230). The generated hard copy bill isthen sent back to the customer in step 240, and the customer can nowauthorize the bill (step 250). If the customer authorizes the bill heinitiates payment, for instance by sending a check or an authorizationto debit from his account, to the billing service (step 260).

[0008] Another billing process according to the prior art is depicted inFIG. 3. In this process, the printing system transmits product usageinformation to the billing service via a phone line (step 310). Thebilling service then generates a bill based on the received informationand sends the bill to the customer via a phone line in step 320. Then,the customer authorizes the bill and sends the authorized bill back tothe billing service.

[0009] While the billing process of FIG. 3 improves over that of FIG. 2in sending the data electronically via phone line, one draw back isstill that a total number of three transmissions are required to performone billing. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the prior art requires first tosend product usage information from the printing system to the billingservice, then send a bill from the billing service to the customer ofthe printing system, and finally send an authorization from the customerof the printing system to the billing service. Even if these steps wereperformed electronically, the process is susceptible to errors in eachtransmission. In case of transmission errors in at least one of thesteps, the billing process cannot be reliably performed anymore.Further, it might be necessary to repeat a transmission what might delaythe process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] The present invention has been made in consideration of the abovesituation, and provides a method of performing a billing process for thecopies or prints produced by a customer of a printing system. Theprinting system comprises a memory storing product usage data indicatinga measurement of the actual use of the printing system. The methodcomprises: 1) in the printing system, accessing the memory to retrievethe product usage data; 2) calculating billing data using the retrievedproduct usage data; 3) presenting a bill to the customer based on thebilling data; 4) receiving user input from the customer indicatingwhether the customer authorizes the billing data; and 5) if the userinput indicates that the customer has authorized the billing data,sending a message from the printing system to a billing service, wherethe message includes information indicating the authorized billing data.

[0011] It is further provided a printing system that comprises: a) amemory storing product usage data indicating a measurement of the actualuse of the printing system by a customer; b) a billing control unit foraccessing the memory to retrieve said product usage data, and forcalculating billing data using the retrieved product usage data; c) auser interface message delivery subsystem for presenting a bill to thecustomer based on said billing data and for receiving user input fromthe customer indicating whether the customer authorizes the billingdata; and d) a message sending unit for sending a message from theprinting system to a billing service if said user input indicates thatthe customer has authorized the billing data, the message includinginformation indicating the authorized billing data.

BRIEF DESCRITION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings are incorporated into and form a partof the specification to illustrate several embodiments of the presentinvention. These drawings together with the description serve to explainthe principles of the invention. The drawings are only for the purposeof illustrating examples of how the invention can be made and used andare not to be construed as limiting the invention to only theillustrated and described embodiments. Further features and advantageswill become apparent from the following and more particular descriptionof the various embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

[0013]FIG. 1 illustrates a printing system according to the prior art;

[0014]FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a first billing processaccording to the prior art;

[0015]FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a second billing processaccording to the prior art;

[0016]FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating the information flow ofthe billing processes according to the prior art;

[0017]FIG. 5 illustrates a printing system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

[0018]FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating the information flow ofthe billing process according to the invention;

[0019]FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the billing process accordingto an embodiment of the present invention; and

[0020]FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the billing process accordingto another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0021] The illustrative embodiments of the present invention will now bedescribed with reference to the figure drawings wherein like elementsand structures are indicated by like reference numbers.

[0022] Referring now to the drawings and in particular to FIG. 5 whichillustrates a printing system according to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the system differs from that depicted in FIG. 1 in that thecontroller 500 further comprises a billing module 510. The billingmodule 510 is a software or hardware component that may be implementedon-board and that allows the system control 130 to control the billingprocess. Thus, the billing module 510 together with the system control130 form a billing control unit of the printing system.

[0023] That is, the invention allows for generating bills locally by theprinter so that there is no need to send product usage information fromthe printing system to the billing service and to send back a bill fromthe billing service to the printing system. This can be seen moreclearly from FIG. 6 which is an information flow diagram illustratingthe process of the invention. Since the bill is generated directly bythe printing system, the bill can be authorized before any transmissionto the billing service is done. The printing system then sends theauthorized billing details to the billing service.

[0024] A first embodiment of the billing process according to theinvention is illustrated in FIG. 7. In step 710, the printing systemreads the internal counter of the printing system. The counter countsthe copies or prints that have been produced by the customer of theprinting system. The copy count is product usage data that indicates ameasurement of the actual use of the printing system. Other commonproduct usage data include meter readings, information on the use ofprinting sub-systems such as sub-units for binding, scanning, stapling,stitching, shrink wrapping, etc and a measure of the paper and tonerconsumption. This data is stored in memory 170 and read in step 710 bythe system control unit 130 when executing the billing process undercontrol of billing module 510.

[0025] The printing system then uses the read product usage data tocalculate billing data and present a bill based on the billing data tothe customer (step 720). The billing data may include the amount ofmoney to be paid by the customer, and the currency. In an alternativeembodiment the billing data includes a value of an arbitrary unit thatcan be used by the printing system and/or the billing service todetermine the amount of money to be paid by the customer. The bill thatis presented by the printing system to the customer is displayed on theprinting system's display such as a liquid crystal display. In anotherembodiment, the bill is presented to the customer by sending the billthrough the network interface 180 to a remote computer system of thecustomer that then displays the bill on a computer monitor of the remotesystem.

[0026] After the bill is generated and presented to the customer, theprinting system obtains the authorization from the customer in step 730.If the bill was presented to the customer using the printing system'sliquid crystal display, authorization may be done by the customer byusing the keyboard of the printing system. If the display of theprinting system is a touch screen, the customer might use the displayitself to authorize the bill. If the bill is presented to the customerusing a remote computer system, the customer uses the keyboard of theremote computer system for entering his authorization, and authorizationdata are then sent back to the printing system using network interface180. Authorization may also be performed as a default option, i.e., ifthe customer has not rejected or modified proposed billing within aspecified time then the billing data is deemed accepted and the billauthorized.

[0027] When the customer has authorized the presented bill in step 730,the printing system sends a message to the billing service for informingthe billing service on the billing data and the authorization by thecustomer. The message may be sent via phone line or via internet in casethe printing system is connected to the internet. This can for instancebe the case if the printing system is connected to a local area network(LAN) by network interface 180 where the LAN is connected to theinternet. Then, in one embodiment, the message including the authorizedbilling details may be sent from the printing system to the billingservice by electronic mail. The message can be encrypted for securityreasons.

[0028] The information that is sent from the printing system to thebilling service in step 740 indicates the amount of money that thecustomer has authorized for payment. The message can further includeelectronic banking data that enables the billing service to debit thecustomer's account for settling the payment.

[0029] A second, more detailed embodiment of how the billing processaccording to the invention can be performed is depicted in FIG. 8. Inthis process, a menu is displayed to the customer in step 805 using theliquid crystal display of the printing system or the computer monitor ofa remote computer system. The menu includes several menu items such as asystem configuration item, a service item and a billing item. Thecustomer selects the billing item in step 810 to proceed with thebilling process.

[0030] The customer is then requested in step 815 to input a period oftime for which he wishes to proceed. For instance, if the customerwishes to pay for the copies or prints produced in the last month, thecustomer inputs the last month as period of time in step 815. Theremight be a default value that is chosen if the customer does not input aperiod of time in step 815. The default period may for instance be theperiod starting from the day of last payment and ending at the end ofthe last month or quarter.

[0031] After the period of time has been determined in step 815, theprinting system retrieves the product usage data from memory 170 in step820 and calculates the billing data in step 825. After displaying a billto the customer in step 830 based on the billing data, the printingsystem receives an input from the customer in step 835 indicatingwhether the customer authorizes the bill or not. If the customer hasinput an authorization, the printing system decides in step 840 toproceed with generating and sending the authorized billing details tothe billing service in steps 845 and 850.

[0032] If the customer fails to authorize the bill, or if the customerdecides in step 855 to proceed with the billing process, for instance topay for the copies or prints produced in another period of time, theprocess returns to step 815.

[0033] As mentioned above, the message sent from the printing system tothe billing service to inform the billing service on the authorizedbilling details might be encrypted for security reasons. Further, extrasecurity can be provided by requiring the customer to enter a passwordwhen selecting the billing item of the menu or when authorizing thebill. Further, the printing system might include a fingerprintidentification option that further increases the process security.

[0034] As apparent from the foregoing, the present invention has manyadvantages that derive from generating print volume bills locally at theprinting system. One advantage is that there is only one messagetransmission necessary so that the billing process is expedited andsimplified so that the risk of transmission errors is reduced. Anotheradvantage is that the invention provides a paperless billing techniquethat leads to low billing and administration costs. Further, theinvention can be easily implemented since the bill is generated by theprinting system just by using a software or hardware module and thepre-existing printer user interface. Finally, security provisions can beeasily enabled for instance through fingerprint identification.

[0035] While the invention has been described with respect to thephysical embodiments constructed in accordance therewith, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications,variations and improvements of the present invention may be made in thelight of the above teaching and within the purview of the appendedclaims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of theinvention. In addition, those areas in which it is believed that thoseof ordinary skill in the art are familiar, have not been describedherein in order to not unnecessarily obscure the invention describedherein. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not tobe limited by the specific illustrative embodiments, but only by thescope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of performing a billing process for thecopies or prints produced by a customer of a printing system, theprinting system comprising a memory storing product usage dataindicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system, themethod comprising: a) in the printing system, accessing the memory toretrieve said product usage data; b) in the printing system, calculatingbilling data using the retrieved product usage data; c) in the printingsystem, presenting a bill to the customer based on said billing data; d)in the printing system, receiving authorization information indicatingwhether the customer authorizes the billing data; and e) if saidauthorization information indicates that the customer has authorized thebilling data, sending a message from the printing system to a billingservice, the message including information indicating the authorizedbilling data.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receivingauthorization information comprises receiving user input from thecustomer.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receivingauthorization information further comprises in response to an absence ofuser input, generating default authorization input within the printingsystem.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said product usage dataindicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system is acount value indicating the number of copies or prints produced by thecustomer of the printing system in a given period of time.
 5. The methodof claim 4, further comprising: in the printing system, receiving userinput from the customer indicating said period of time.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the step of calculating the billing data is initiatedby the customer.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said message is sentfrom the printing system to the billing service via a phone line.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said message is sent from the printing systemto the billing service via the internet.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein said message is an electronic mail message.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said message includes electronic banking dataauthorizing the billing service to debit from the customer's account.11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: a) in the printingsystem, receiving user input from the customer indicating a password; b)wherein the step of sending said message from the printing system to abilling service is performed only if the correct password has beenentered by the customer.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:a) in the printing system, performing a fingerprint identification toensure that the billing data is authorized by the correct person; and b)wherein the step of sending said message from the printing system to thebilling service is performed only if the fingerprint identification hasrevealed that the billing data is authorized by the correct person. 13.Printing system comprising: a) a memory storing product usage dataindicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system by acustomer; b) a billing control unit for accessing the memory to retrievesaid product usage data and for calculating billing data using theretrieved product usage data; c) a user interface message deliverysubsystem for presenting a bill to the customer based on said billingdata and for receiving user input from the customer indicating whetherthe customer authorizes the billing data; and d) a message sending unitfor sending a message from the printing system to a billing service ifsaid user input indicates that the customer has authorized the billingdata, the message including information indicating the authorizedbilling data.
 14. The printing system of claim 13, wherein the userinterface message delivery subsystem comprises a user interface unitintegrated with the printing system.
 15. The printing system of claim11, wherein said product usage data indicating a measurement of theactual use of the printing system is a count value indicating the numberof copies or prints produced by the customer of the printing system in agiven period of time.
 16. The printing system of claim 12, wherein saiduser interface unit is arranged for receiving user input from thecustomer indicating said period of time.
 17. The printing system ofclaim 11, wherein said message sending unit is arranged for sending saidmessage via a phone line.
 18. The printing system of claim 11, whereinsaid message sending unit includes circuitry for connecting the printingsystem to the internet.
 19. The printing system of claim 15, whereinsaid circuitry includes a LAN interface unit.
 20. The printing system ofclaim 11, further comprising a fingerprint identification unit forperforming a fingerprint identification process to ensure that thebilling data is authorized by the correct person.